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Meet the Rubios

Marco and Jeanette Rubio may soon be facing an invasive tsunami of press and vetting. | AP Photo

He is defensive about the suggestion that as a conservative Cuban-American, he doesn’t represent the interests of the larger Hispanic population. “Dividing Cubans against the rest of the Hispanic community is … offensive. I mean, my wife’s not Cuban; her family’s not Cuban,” he said of Jeanette, who is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. The votes of all Hispanics, he says, “has to be earned through a message and a vision and a set of policies that inspire people.”

In addition to his youth and minimal experience in national politics, there is also some political baggage that some say could scare off the ever-cautious Romney. At the forefront are public spending issues. A credit card scandal that erupted in Florida in the middle of his Senate campaign — but that has received little national attention — exposed that Rubio and others used a Florida Republican Party credit card for personal purchases. Rubio has said it was a mistake and that he paid American Express for all the personal charges. But it still dogs him. Some expenditures from his political action committees to his wife and other family members have also been questioned. At best, it was a careless commingling of funds that any low-level politician knows not to do.

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“There are things I wish we would have done differently, there’s no doubt about it — and would do differently and we now do differently,” he said. “But then again, I’ve never learned from my successes. Everything I’ve ever learned has been from mistakes — I’m saying that with life and not just in politics. “

In his forthcoming book, Rubio addresses another source of curiosity in his life: his unusual spiritual odyssey from Catholicism to Mormonism to the Baptist faith and back to Catholicism. He has at various times in the past decade identified his denomination differently in the Florida Legislature clerk’s handbook. He sees nothing odd about it. He and his mother and sister joined the Mormon church when they were living in Las Vegas in the late 70s. According to a family member quoted in Roig-Franzia’s book, it was young Marco who convinced his family to return to the Catholicism.

“The truth is I have been a Catholic, and I am again — and I am, and I feel very strongly about the Catholic Church, but the bottom line is we found this [other] church that we liked,” he explains about his decision to attend Christ Fellowship, a mega-church affiliated with Southern Baptist Convention.

He tries to attend Mass daily while in Washington. Jeanette was also raised Catholic but considers herself more of a devout Christian that a devout Catholic. The family attends two services on weekends, Mass on Sunday and Saturday evening services at Christ Fellowship. He only takes communion at Mass, he says.

Of Christ Fellowship, he says, “they’re excellent teachers of the written word. They’re excellent teachers of applicable — of how you apply the principles of Christianity and the powerful teachings of Christianity not just to your life but to eternity. We just liked the church. And my kids liked it and my wife liked it and our family liked it, and for a time, that’s the only place I went to exclusively, but always felt called back to the Catholic Church and to the Catholic faith.

But for any more detail about his journey and dance with Catholicism, he says, “you’ll have to buy the book.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the law school Marco Rubio attended. He went to the University of Miami School of Law.

Rubio's parents moved more than two-and-a-half years before Castro’s forces overthrew the Cuban government and took power on New Year’s Day 1959.

Yet no one uncovered this while he was running for senate and he kept on repeating his family came he to escape a dictator. I know how emotional cuban americans are of castros and Rubio coldly played right into it.

Rubio always knew this. It is the lie and cold calculations of florida politics that leaves you a bad taste. Rubio fits very well into the bad slimy political environment of today. There are more skeletons whose evidence may have been destroyed.

I would like to ask Marco a few questions... Do you think the "Cuban Adjustment Act" and the "wet foot / dry foot " policy should be repealed?. How can supposed refugees fleeing from a communist country return back to Cuba whenever they want to and do so by the thousands and then return back to the U.S. and still receive the entitlements because of the CAA? Why are the benefits paid for by the U.S. payer afforded to only Cubans, not from another country communist or not? And finally, if you do not want these two cold war laws repealed why do you not want the same rules applied to every other immigrant fleeing their homeland, which we all know is for the same reason and the Cubans, economical.

Those who are not familiar with the Cuban Adjustment Act and wet foot / dry foot policy are here:

she looks like the faded pole dancer that he had to marry because she got pregnant

You are just a mean-spirited, bitter person. Heck, try reading the article...

She is a shy, behind-the-scenes booster married to her high school sweetheart who has never given a speech and bristles when the media reduces her life to a brief stint as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader.

If you have ever lived in South Florida, you would know that there's nothing attractive about the insanity of Cuban politicians. Nothing. I would go out of my way to always vote against them. And I am Cuban, BTW.

Play it safe mitt. I like Rubio but he is too young & inexperienced, just like obozo the amateur. Let him do the keynote speech & campaign heavily among Hispanics, but pick portman or even jindahl. The election is about Obama. You don't need to do anything risky.